Alcohol isn’t generally the first drink that moms-to-be reach for, but if they do, they may not be doing as much harm to their children as previously thought.

According to a British study, children born to mothers who drank moderately while pregnant did not show signs of balance problems when they were 10; trouble with balance is a good indicator of problems with brain development in utero, the authors say.

The researchers, who published their results in the journal BMJ Open, studied nearly 7,000 ten-year-olds enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children who were born between 1991 and 1992. The children were given three different balance tests, including walking on a balance beam and standing still on one leg with their eyes closed. Those whose mothers reported drinking three to seven alcoholic beverages a week during their 18th week of pregnancy were more likely to fall into the top 25% of performers on the balance exercises compared to those whose moms abstained.

These findings support those of a previous study out of Denmark that reported light to moderate drinking early in pregnancy was not associated with declines in intelligence, attention or self-control in children at age 5. But this study did caution that heavy drinking was linked to negative developmental effects.

Despite the fact that better balance is an indicator of healthy brain development in the womb, the current results don’t necessarily mean that it’s time to rethink the advice that pregnant women shouldn’t drink. Research has shown that drinking can cause physical deformities as well as behavioral and cognitive symptoms in babies, including fetal alcohol syndrome. The scientists in the UK study accounted for other factors that might explain the results of the balance test, including the mothers’ age, smoking and previous pregnancies, and they found that the moderate drinkers tended to have more education and more comfortable socioeconomic backgrounds. These environmental effects, they say, could explain the improved balance results among their children as the youngsters may have benefited from more education, physical activity training and other opportunities that made up for any potential cognitive deficits caused by the alcohol.

The researchers also say that the majority of the mothers in the study (70%) did not drink at all while expecting and only about 25% drank rarely to moderately. About 5% drank seven or more alcoholic beverages a week, and one in seven of these women regularly consumed four or more drinks in one sitting, which the scientists considered binge drinking.

Adding to the possibility that the children’s education and socioeconomic status were compensating for any potential harms from the alcohol, the scientists also studied women who possessed genes that prevented them enjoying alcohol as much. If alcohol had a positive effect on brain development and enhanced balance, these children would be expected to do worse on balance tests, but they performed as well as the other youngsters.

The study doesn’t suggest whether there is a safe level of alcohol consumption for pregnant women, so most experts say the current recommendation that moms-to-be avoid alcohol while expecting is still good advice; there’s no evidence yet that wine is good for the womb.

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If you have never been told that you have a problem with alcohol and are able to have only one 4 oz glass rarely (not measured in daily or monthly but rarely meaning that you might have 1 this month and maybe not), then I agree that it is not likely to cause a negative effect on your unborn child. However, I would want to know more than just "my child can balance"! I had the occasional glass of white wine as described above later on in my pregnancy (maybe 5 glasses in total) and my 15 year old is fine and top of his class. However, I have seen then devastating effects of fetal alcohol syndrome on children and they are effected for life. They are behaviourally more difficult and have many challenges notwithstanding the obvious physical characteristics that come with FASD. They can be very aggressive so they tend to not have many friends. Learning is difficult, attention spans are low. This I have personally witnessed when working with K thru 6's. My mom used to say "everything in moderation" and I tend to agree with that statement IF you know what moderation is and CAN moderate.....this is not a license to drink while pregnant!!!! BTW, thanks for adding that there are many other factors that effect pregnancy/fetal health. Just because some kids could "balance" at 10 years old means nothing.

This now makes more sense. Women have been drinking alcohol for thousands of years and they didn't stop when they were pregnant. Alcohol has been a regular addition to the dinner table in most European countries for centuries. In some countries alcoholized beverages were drunk instead of water because water was too full of impurities and alcohol was the only way to kill them. If it was true that no amount of alcohol was safe for pregnancies we should have been producing an astonishing number of brain-damaged children for centuries.